John Blake’s Story

About Director John Blake

John Blake is native to Durham and has been married for 40 years. He and his wife, Carolyn, have three children. The couple currently resides in downtown Durham. John has degrees in Community & Health Education, Fitness, and Sports Medicine from East Carolina University and a graduate of the Children’s Ministries Institute®.

For John, there was always a burning desire to serve and he went into full-time Christian service with Child Evangelism Fellowship® of North Carolina in 1995. He currently serves as the Executive Director of CEF’s Durham Area Chapter in North Carolina. He is the founder of More Than Gold Sportsreach™, HUB Church Partnerships™, and Extra Good News™, which is an urban initiative designed to enhance the ministries of CEF North Carolina and local churches. In 2008, an urban mission boot camp for students was established along with a city-wide collaborative called the Durham Urban Net. Each of these programs stresses the importance of the “10 Keys of the Kingdom” for holistic community-based spiritual transformation.

John’s passion is to empower and free our friends in the city through the biblical gospel. He is also a contributing author on several projects in his past medical profession, author-creator of the “7 Most Important Things in the World” (7MIT) and the City Kids column featured in Today’s ChildTM and TeachKids!® magazines. John and his son, Sean Blake, released a gospel song for kids called the “7 MIT Song”. The rhythmic action song is based upon the “7 Most Important Things in the World“, created to communicate the simplicity and depth of the gospel to city kids.